City Guides

December holds the tail of the maples for a week, then gives Kyoto its quietest and cheapest stretch until New Year arrives – and 25 December is an ordinary working day.

October gives Kyoto its best walking weather and, on 22 October, both the Jidai Matsuri parade and the Kurama Fire Festival – but the maples do not turn until mid-November.

September splits in two in Kyoto – summer and typhoon peak first, then the humidity breaking into comfortable walking weather, at prices well below October and November.

August is the hottest month in Kyoto and the month of Gozan no Okuribi – five fires lit on the mountains at 20:00 on the 16th to send the ancestors home at the close of Obon.

Gion Matsuri takes over Kyoto for all of July, with both float parades falling on Saturdays in 2027 – and the city hitting 32C in a basin that holds the heat.

June brings the rainy season to Kyoto – and saturates the moss gardens they were designed around, opens the hydrangeas, empties the temples and drops the rates to their lowest between seasons.

Once Golden Week clears around 7 May, Kyoto gives you fresh green maples, 25C, the Aoi Matsuri on the 15th and shoulder-season rates – better value than sakura or autumn.

Kyoto sakura usually opens in the last days of March and peaks in early April – but the date moves a week either way, and from the 25th prices and crowds change completely.

February brings Setsubun bean-throwing to Kyoto on the 3rd and plum blossom to Kitano Tenmangu six weeks before the cherry trees – with temples empty and rates near the annual floor.

January is the coldest and quietest month in Kyoto – hatsumode crowds for three days, then empty temples, the biggest markets of the year and the cheapest accommodation.